Ex-JDL Official to Plead Guilty in Bombing Plot

Earl Krugel, who served as the Jewish Defense League’s second-in-command, has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with a bombing plot against a Culver City mosque and a congressman’s office in San Diego County.

Krugel, who has been in custody since the plot was broken up 13 months ago, negotiated a deal with federal prosecutors that may spare him from spending the remainder of his life in prison. Under terms of his plea agreement, Krugel faces 10 to 20 years behind bars.

“Earl’s very upset about his predicament and wants to put it behind him,” his defense lawyer, Mark Werksman, said Friday. “He decided to cut his losses, given the fact that he was looking at a mandatory 40 years behind bars if he’d been convicted at trial.” Krugel is 60.

Contributing to the decision, Werksman said, was the realization that “the political climate today is not hospitable for defending a domestic terrorism case.”

Krugel initially insisted that he had been illegally entrapped by a JDL member turned FBI informant. But in his plea agreement, Krugel admits that he and longtime JDL national director Irv Rubin came up with the idea for the bombings and recruited the informant to carry them out.

Krugel’s co-defendant, Rubin, 57, died in November after leaping from a balcony at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where both men were being held pending trial on charges of plotting to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Vista), who is Lebanese American.

Shortly after Rubin’s apparent suicide, Werksman initiated talks with federal prosecutors about a possible plea agreement.

The deal calls for him to plead guilty to possessing an explosive device intended for use against a U.S. official, a crime that carries a mandatory 10-year sentence. He has also agreed to plead guilty to violating the civil rights of worshipers at the King Fahd Mosque. That offense is punishable by as much as 10 years in prison.

After his release, Krugel is to have no dealings with the JDL or any current or former members.

Krugel, a Navy veteran who has worked as a dental assistant, is scheduled to enter his plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew.

Rubin and Krugel were arrested on Dec. 11, 2001, after an FBI informant delivered 5 pounds of explosives to Krugel’s home in Reseda.

According to a statement accompanying Krugel’s signed agreement filed in court Friday, Krugel and Rubin met with the informant on Oct. 19, 2001, and laid the groundwork for a bombing campaign against Arab American targets.

Rubin, the statement said, wanted to target the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which has offices in a Mid-Wilshire high-rise, and Krugel had a list of mosques throughout the Los Angeles area. Krugel acknowledged saying that Arabs needed a “wake-up call” and that the JDL needed to do something to one of the Arabs’ “filthy mosques.”

Over the next several weeks, Krugel said, he met many times with the informant, directing him to photograph various Arab American targets and sending him on shopping trips for gunpowder and pipes to be used to build a bomb.

The plot came to a head on Dec. 11, 2001, according to the statement, when Rubin gave the informant his final instructions: bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City. The informant also was directed to find the location of Issa’s field office, which was to be the target of the next bombing.

FBI agents arrested Rubin and Krugel later that day. During a search of Krugel’s home and garage, they found 5 pounds of explosive powder, metal pipes, books titled “Principles of Improvised Explosive Devices” and “Improvised Explosives,” along with racist literature disparaging Arabs and Muslims.

At the King Fahd Mosque on Friday, director Tajuddin Shuaib expressed satisfaction that Krugel had finally admitted that he and Rubin were behind the bombing plot. “We thank God that they were caught before they did the act,” he said.

Nevertheless, Shuaib said, the experience has left the mosque’s congregants anxious about security. “We had to add more video cameras,” he said. “We have more security guys around the building. Of course, that’s all very expensive.”

In Washington, Issa said, “The plea agreement entered today by JDL bomber Earl Krugel marks another success in the war on terrorism. Americans reject extremists who seek influence through the use of terror, whatever the source, at home or abroad. By his own admission, Krugel acknowledges that he and Irv Rubin sought to deny myself and others, through the use of violence and intimidation, the right to free speech.”

Issa also thanked the FBI for thwarting the plot.